A/HRC/42/17 6. Despite the restrictions placed on its access to Yemen following the release of its first report, the Group of Experts continued to gather evidence, including by using methods based on ever-evolving best practices from fact-finding bodies facing similar constraints. It conducted more than 600 interviews with victims, witnesses and other sources, and examined a large volume of documentary and open-source material. Its findings are based on its independent investigations, focusing on allegations of violations of international law relating to situations emblematic of the armed conflict. Where available and appropriate, the Group also examined information from additional sources, reaching independent conclusions on such content after assessing the reliability of the information and credibility of the source. 7. The Group of Experts regrets that, following the release of its first report, the Governments of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt did not cooperate with the Group or support its work. While the de facto authorities agreed to the request by the Group to visit areas under its control, the Government of Yemen did not respond to its multiple requests for permission to enter Yemen, thereby preventing access to the country and, consequently, to victims and information. The Group denounces the environment of fear created by some of the parties to the conflict that caused witnesses, victims and organizations to reconsider their cooperation with it. Furthermore, the lack of safe spaces for victims and witnesses to have privacy to speak with investigators had a detrimental impact, especially on cases involving the most vulnerable and marginalized persons, such as gender-based violence, and violations against children and persons with disabilities. 8. The Group of Experts once again expresses its gratitude to the victims and witnesses who shared their experiences, and for the assistance provided by government and nongovernmental entities and by United Nations agencies and partners. III. Legal framework 9. The situation in Yemen qualifies as a non-international armed conflict between the armed forces of the Government of Yemen and the Houthis, to which article 3 common to the Four Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol II apply, as does customary law. With the coalition’s intervention in 2015, its members became parties to the conflict as cobelligerents on the side of the Yemeni armed forces. 10. A number of other non-international armed conflicts also continue in Yemen, between the Government of Yemen and other non-State armed groups, including Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and among different armed groups, some affiliated with the parties to the main conflict. Provisions regulating non-international armed conflict also apply to these conflicts. These rules are also relevant to the United States of America insofar as it is involved in operations in support of the Government of Yemen against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. 11. The obligations of third States to ensure respect for international humanitarian law are also particularly relevant in this context for any State that influences or may provide support for parties to the conflict, such as France, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. 12. International human rights law is concurrently applicable with international humanitarian law. The Government of Yemen is party to seven of the nine core universal human rights conventions. While the Government’s human rights obligations cover the entirety of the territory of Yemen, the de facto authorities, given their exercise of government-like functions in the areas they effectively control, are also bound by international human rights obligations. Human rights obligations of non-State armed groups and member States of the coalition may arise insofar as they exercise control over certain areas or facilities. 13. International criminal law is relevant insofar as it reflects customary law, as Yemen and most members of the coalition (except for Jordan and Senegal) are not parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 3